Surgical device

ABSTRACT

Surgical device ( 1 ) for use in a surgical procedure comprising a plurality of surgical instruments ( 3   a   , 3   b   , 3   c ) for performing predetermined steps of the surgical procedure with at least one of the surgical instruments being movable relative to the other surgical instruments of the device.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a surgical device for use in a surgicalprocedure and is particularly, but not exclusively, concerned with asurgical device for use in a surgical procedure for implanting aprosthesis structure into a bone tissue structure, for exampleimplanting a dental prosthesis structure into a jaw bone of a human oranimal patient.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Dental prosthesis structures typically comprise an anchoring componentor fixture which is anchored in the bone tissue of the jaw bone, aspacer component or abutment which is attached to the anchoringcomponent to bridge the soft tissue layer overlying the jaw bone and arestoration component such as a bridge or crown supported on the spacercomponent.

A variety of different surgical instruments are needed by the dentalsurgeon for implanting the prosthesis structure, for example drills,bone taps, probes, wrenches, depth gauges etc. It would obviously beconvenient for the surgeon to have some of these instruments connectedtogether rather than separate, particularly in the case of relatedinstruments or instruments which will be needed in adjacent steps of thesurgical procedure.

In Applicant's prior International patent application publication No.WO94/09719 there is made known integrating two different dental implantsurgical instruments into a single dental implant surgical device. Thesetwo instruments, however, are rigidly connected together so that thedental surgeon needs to maneuver the device around to be able to use thedifferent instruments. It would be further advantageous for the dentalsurgeon to be able to have such a device in which the instruments areable to be moved relative to one another.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the present invention there is provided a surgical devicefor use in a surgical procedure comprising a plurality of surgicalinstruments for performing predetermined steps of the surgical procedurewith at least one of the surgical instruments being movable relative tothe other surgical instruments of the device.

In an embodiment of the invention all of the surgical instruments aremovable relative to each other.

In an embodiment of the invention such as the one hereinafter to bedescribed the surgical device comprises more than two surgicalinstruments with each surgical instrument being independently movable.This may be accomplished as in the embodiment of the inventionhereinafter to be described by having each surgical instrument pivotallymounted to the device. For a more compact device the surgicalinstruments may be pivotally mounted to the device at a common pivotpoint.

In an embodiment of the invention the surgical procedure comprises asequence of different predetermined surgical steps and each surgicalinstrument is for performing a different predetermined surgical step ofthe surgical procedure.

In an embodiment of the invention the surgical procedure is forimplanting a prosthesis structure into a bone tissue structure of ahuman or animal patient, for instance an orthopaedic prosthesisstructure or, as in the embodiment of the invention hereinafter to bedescribed, a dental prosthesis structure.

In an embodiment of the invention the prosthesis structure is a dentalprosthesis structure which comprises an anchoring component foranchorage in a bore provided in the bone tissue of a jaw bone, theanchoring component being selected from a set of standard anchoringcomponents of different lengths, and one of the surgical instruments isa depth gauge adapted to be positioned in the bore to enable a standardanchoring component of correct length to be selected from the set foranchorage in the bore.

In an embodiment of the invention such as the one hereinafter to bedescribed the prosthesis structure is a dental prosthesis structurewhich comprises an anchoring component for anchorage in a bore providedin the bone tissue of a jaw bone and a spacer component for attachmentto the anchoring component when anchored in the bore in the jaw bone tobridge the soft tissue layer overlying the anchoring component, thespacer component being selected from a set of standard spacer componentsof different lengths, and one of the surgical instruments is a depthgauge adapted to engage with the proximal end of the anchoring componentwhen anchored in the bore through the soft tissue layer to enable astandard spacer component of correct length to be selected from the setfor attachment to the anchoring component. One of the other surgicalinstruments could, of course, be a depth gauge for enabling selection ofthe anchoring component as described in the preceding paragraph.

In an embodiment of the invention the surgical device comprises a handleand the surgical instruments are coupled to the handle.

The present invention further provides a kit of surgical instruments forcarrying out a surgical procedure, a plurality of the surgicalinstruments in the kit forming an integrated surgical device with atleast one of the surgical instruments of the surgical device beingmovable relative to the other surgical instruments of the surgicaldevice.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENT

By way of example, an embodiment of the invention will now be describedwith reference to the accompanying Figure in which there is shown adental implant surgery device 1 comprising three surgical instruments 3a, 3 b, 3 c. Each surgical instrument 3 a, 3 b, 3 c is associated with adifferent fixture and adapted to co-operate therewith to determine whichstandard abutment in a set of standard abutments having differentlengths should be selected for attachment to the associated fixture whenanchored in a jaw bone of a patient for the prevailing conditions andthe prosthesis requirements, as will be described in more detailhereinafter.

As can be seen, each surgical instrument 3 a, 3 b, 3 c has a shankportion 5 a, 5 b, 5 c and a head portion 7 a, 7 b, 7 c with the shankportions 5 a, 5 b, 5 c being connected to one another through a commonpivot point 8 whereby each surgical instrument is independentlypivotable about the other two surgical instruments. The dental implantsurgery device 1 may be modified so that the common pivot point 8 isdisposed closer to the head portions 7 a, 7 b, 7 c by making the shankportions 5a, 5 b, 5 c overlap one another on the side of the commonpivot point 8 remote from the head portions 7 a, 7 b, 7 c. This willgive a more reinforced section for the dental surgeon to grip tocounteract the bending stresses that will be experienced by the dentalimplant surgery device 1 in use.

The fixtures with which the surgical instruments 3 a, 3 b, 3 c arerespectively associated all have a trailing end in which there opens asocket having a conical entrance section and a threaded bore section.Moreover, the boundary walls of the conical entrance sections of thesockets of the respective associated fixtures are inclined at a commonangle. The depth of the conical entrance section of the socket of eachassociated fixture is different, however, due to the trailing end widthsof the associated fixtures being different.

Consequent to the design of the sockets of the associated fixtures, eachstandard abutment in the set has (i) a conical profile which enables itto seat in the conical entrance sections of the sockets of theassociated fixtures, and (ii) screw means for screwing into the threadedbore sections of the sockets of the associated fixtures to secure it tothe associated fixtures.

To enable each surgical instrument 3 a, 3 b, 3 c to co-operate with thefixture associated therewith the head portions 7 a, 7 b, 7 c are eachprovided with a conical distal end 9 a, 9 b, 9 c for seating in theconical entrance section of the socket of the associated fixture, eachconical distal end 9 a, 9 b, 9 c being sized for the particular depth ofthe conical entrance section of the socket of the associated fixture.Each surgical instrument 3 a, 3 b, 3 c is thus able to engage with thefixture associated therewith in an analogous manner to the standardabutments.

The head portion 7 a, 7 b, 7 c of each surgical instrument 3 a, 3 b, 3 cis further provided with a series of alternating light and dark, coloredcircumferential bands 11 a, 11 b, 11 c proximally of the conical distalend 9 a, 9 b, 9 c with the boundary lines between adjacent light anddark coloured bands in each series 11 a, 11 b, 11 c representingstandard abutments of different lengths. When the conical distal end 9a, 9 b, 9 c of one of the surgical instrument 3 a, 3 b, 3 c is seated inthe conical entrance section of the socket of the associated fixture, astandard abutment of correct length for the prevailing conditions andprosthesis requirements is able to be selected for attachment to theassociated fixture by reference to the disposition of the boundary linesin the series of circumferential band 11 a, 11 b, 11 c relative to themargin of the soft tissue layer overlying the jaw bone at the fixturesite. Further details on the abutment depth gauge function of the headportions 7 a, 7 b, 7 c can be gathered from WO94/09719 supra thecontents of which relating to this feature are incorporated herein byreference.

It may be the case that the conical entrance sections of the sockets ofthe fixtures associated with the surgical instruments 3 a, 3 b, 3 cdiffer from one another in the angle of inclination of their boundarywalls in which case there would be (i) a different set of standardabutments for each associated fixture, the standard abutments in eachset having a conical profile matched to the conical entrance section ofthe socket of the associated fixture, and (ii) a different profile forthe conical distal ends 9 a, 9 b, 9 c, each matched to the conicalentrance section of the socket of the associated fixture.

It will be clear that the surgical device of the invention need notnecessarily be composed of instruments used for the same function as inthe illustrated embodiment but could easily be modified so as to includeor be composed of a variety of different dental implant surgeryinstruments, for example probes, bone taps, wrenches, fixture depthgauges etc. It will further be clear that the present invention is notrestricted to the field of implant surgery but has application in thebroader field of surgery per se.

What is claimed is:
 1. A surgical device consisting essentially of aplurality of depth gauges for implanting a dental prosthesis in a jawbone of a patient, wherein each depth gauge comprises a shank portionand a bead portion having one or more depth indicator marks, and whereinthe shank portions are pivotally mounted relative to each other.
 2. Thesurgical device according to claim 1, wherein the depth gauges aremovable relative to each other.
 3. The surgical device according toclaim 1, wherein at least one of the depth gauges is movable relative tothe other depth gauges.
 4. The surgical device according to claim 1,wherein the surgical instruments are pivotally mounted at a common pivotpoint.
 5. The surgical device according to claim 1, wherein the dentalprosthesis structure comprises an anchoring component for anchorage in abore provided in the bone tissue of the jaw bone, the anchoringcomponent being selected from a set of standard anchoring components ofdifferent lengths, and wherein each depth gauge is adapted to bepositioned in the bore to enable a standard anchoring component ofcorrect length to be selected from the set for anchorage in the bore. 6.The surgical device according to claim 1, wherein the dental prosthesisstructure comprises an anchoring component for anchorage in a boreprovided in the bone tissue of the jaw bone and a spacer component forattachment to the anchoring component when anchored in the bore in thejaw bone to bridge the soft tissue layer overlying the anchoringcomponent, the spacer component being selected from a set of standardspacer components of different lengths, and wherein each depth gauge isadapted to engage with the proximal end of the anchoring component whenanchored in the bore through the soft tissue layer to enable a standardspacer component of correct length to be selected from the set forattachment to the anchoring component.
 7. A kit of surgical instrumentsfor carrying out a surgical procedure for implanting a dental prosthesisstructure in a jaw bone of patient in which the surgical instruments inthe kit form an integrated surgical device consisting essentially of aplurality of depth gauges, wherein each depth gauge comprises a shankportion and a head portion having one or more depth indicator marks, andwherein the shank portions are pivotally mounted relative to each other.